Flew through Istanbul ... it was fun to recognize buildings from my trip there in October.
Mom and Caleb's flight was delayed, so I spent the first day exploring on my own.
View of the Acropolis from the Areopagus. This was probably my favorite place. I climbed the hill several times a day just to take in the view again and again. It was really beautiful at sunset.
View of Mt. Lycabettus (or Lycavitos)
Me on the Areopagus:
Herodium or music school beneath the Acropolis
Syntagma Square. I was there on the day after Christmas. Everything was alive and busy. Their gift-giving day isn't until the 31st, so everyone was still busy shopping.
Roman Baths
Wednesday night they finally arrived!
The next day we took a taxi tour of Athens. On the Acropolis:
At Athens Olympic Stadium:
A view of the city from the tallest mountain in Athens (Lycabettus) with our taxi driver, Kostas:
Kostas drove us an hour and a half to Cape Sounion where we went to dinner then to the Temple of Poseidon to watch the sunset:
FOOD:
We enjoyed eating P-O-R-K (at least I did). For almost every lunch, we had souvlaki with pork meat. They slice the marinated meat, put it in pita bread with french fries, tomatoes, onions, and tzaziki. Mmmmm!
We ate at this restaurant almost every day, and decided we needed a picture with the owner!
Mousakka was another favorite (a casserole with potatoes, ground beef, eggplant and a cheesy layer)
Meatballs and rice
Despite the rainy days, Caleb enjoyed eating ice cream:
Special Christmas cookies:
One of the after dinner specialties was yogurt with fruit pieces and honey:
EXPERIENCES:
Caleb managed to sleep everywhere. Here he is under the heater at a restaurant:
Caleb had his first metro ride. He learned how to read the metro map and caught on quickly to where we were going:
While Mom and I got mani/pedis, Caleb had his feet massaged by little fish!
On our last day we went to a small carnival that was being held for the holidays. There were two entertaining performers and we enjoyed watching the children and families having fun.
Caleb feeding a pigeon:
SIGHTS:
We saw just about everything there was to see in downtown Athens. Ruins were tucked inside every neighborhood. And the most amazing part was looking up above the buildings and seeing the Acropolis standing there. We loved going out on our balcony each morning to gaze up at it, realizing that a monumental part of history was right there!
Hadrian's library:
Looking up at the Acropolis from the Ancient Agora (Stoa bottom left)
Museum inside the Stoa was fascinating. Here are the "ballots" voting out Themistocles:
Infants were buried in urns like these with miniature vessels to help them in the afterlife.
This was used to determine whether or not you would serve for jury duty. One entire row would be called at a time:
The temple of Hephaestus
On one of the last days we walked through a park on a hill facing the Acropolis. It was so peaceful and there were beautiful views of the city. (Mt. Lycabettus is in the distance.)
We were sad to go, but thankful for our taxi driver, George. His service was highly recommended and we were thankful for his expertise and helpful suggestions.
There were too many wonderful things to describe it all here, but our time in Athens was amazing! I'd wanted to go since 5th grade. Finally being there was a lifetime dream come true!
